Hodinkee Seiko event

[tinger]

Any one going to the Grand Seiko event at EN on Hudson Street tonight? (NYC)

[slavik]

wish i could, should be an exciting event!

[Frosty]

I would if I were anywhere close, not the left coast.

[tinger]

Great venue last night.
Met the President/CEO of Seiko USA plus senior officers from various departments.
The restaurant served excellent, mostly non generic all you can eat/drink food and a very smooth/mellow sake (plus Asahi). Sushi was fresh, though a bit too much rice to fish ratio.
I did find out that there's no need to send GrandSeikos and Spring drives to Japan for servicing. They will (or already started) servicing at the US headquarters in NJ.
The next step/challenge in the gps/astron line is to shrink the height of the watch.
It takes a watch maker 3 hours to assemble a spring drive gmt (~420 parts).
I asked whats the point of hi-accuracy quartz watches rated at 5 or 10 spy not being annual calendars or at the very least have a jumping hour feature. Didn't really get an answer on this.
Met a cool dude wearing a Credor Eichi. The Noritake porcelain has a translucent almost 3d look. Very awesome!

[Frosty]

Any pictures?

[tinger]

Unfortunately, I only took 2 lousy pics. (spring drive movement and the food table).
I'm sure Ben Clymer and gang will be posting pics on his blog soon.

[powerfunk]

Interesting! I'm kind of glad I got my 6146-8000 serviced earlier this year; it was sent to Japan and overhauled by one of Seiko's grandmaster watchmakers. At the time NJ wouldn't touch it, and forwarded all GS's to Japan.